Hermana Beck's Weekly Email - Que Sera Sera
A series of events from my last week of 2023, in no particular order:
- Wednesday we had our zone gift exchange! I received flea repellant from Elder Canter... which is actually way more thoughtful than you'd think. I'm one of the few missionaries in Alto who hasn't gotten fleas yet this transfer and I intend on keeping it that way.
- One night my companion made me cut her hair☠️ I told her over and over that I'd never cut hair before and shouldn't be trusted but I actually did a pretty good job! She said I cut off too much (it was less than an inch) but she didn't kill me in my sleep like I thought she might so a win is a win.
- Last week we fasted as a district to be able to find new people to teach because we've been having a bit of a rough patch. For me and my comp, the fruits of our fast came in the form of Iriet ♥️ shortly after we broke our fast me and Hna. V were walking down a random neighborhood, and sat on a random bench to update our Preach My Gospel app (spoiler, nothing in the mission is "random") We were talking for a while when a voice from the house behind us said, "hey, are you guys mormón?" I turned around and started talking to the two ladies sitting on their "porch." They told me their 6 year old daughter, Iriet, reeaaalllyyyy wants to go to our church and we got to know each other a bit. Yesterday, Iriet came to church with her entire family! Like five people! Our mission has a special focus on baptizing not just individuals but families, so we're gonna start trying to teach Iriet with her family :) we had a total of 12 friends come to church with us yesterday. God is Good.
- One day we went to visit a family that we've been working with for a while and discovered that they had moved to Bolivia without telling us 😃 but in their house now lives Jimmy and Rosy! They just moved here from Bolivia -I swear every one we talk to is either coming from or going to Bolivia. Specifically Cochabamba, we've planted many many seeds for the Cochabamba missionaries. I hope they appreciate us.- anyway, Jimmy and Rosy are catholic and they want us to teach them and their daughter (who will be coming from Cochabamba soon) the lessons! Usually Catholics here don't even let us get two words out before they slam the door in our face. But not these guys, they welcome us into their home and offer us food and listen intently to learn more about Jesus. It's amazing!
- I don't know that I've adequately expressed just how many dogs there are here. I know there are dogs all over South America, but in Alto Hospicio there are more dogs than flies (and there are a lot of flies 💩) at any given time you can see at least ten in your line of vision. The Alto Hospicio logo is literally a dog with a frisbee in it's mouth. I generally don't mind them and they're pretty friendly, until they start fighting each other. That's freaking scary. I included a video of one of the craziest fights I've seen, don't watch it if you dont want to have nightmares.
- I've discovered that Chileans don't understand the concept of "conversation." You ask them one question and before you even finish asking it they launch into an hour long story about their entire life and the deep secrets of others, without pausing long enough for you to even say "wow." I've grown quite tired of it. But if I had a nickel for every time we had a "conversation" like that with a member last week that ended up being about exorcism and ghosts I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
- The Chilean tradition for New Years Eve is to eat a huge dinner at midnight. Similar to Christmas Eve, where they open all their gifts at midnight. We spent New Years Eve with one of our favorite members, Jenny and we told her well in advance that we had to be home before 10 like usual but SHE HELD US HOSTAGE !!! Her brother was grilling enormous amounts of the sketchiest assortment of meats I've ever seen in my life and she told us we had to stay until it was done. She even fought with our ZL over the phone to try and get us to stay until 2am (no gracias) they caved and told her we could stay until 11 but that if we didn't facetime them from our pensions before then they would call President Wu😃 the meat was just as scary to eat as it looked and it didn't help that Jenny told each of us when our meat was killed and what it looked like before it was killed. We ate as fast as we could and RAN all the way home clocking in at 10:54. I haven't eaten since, my stomach is angry and traumatized.
- it's a good thing my stomach is traumatized because with the holidays landing on mondays, we haven't been able to go grocery shopping in weeks. Everything is closed, there's no food at home.
- The title: "Whatever Will Be, Will Be." One day last week we had to take a taxi 3 different times and each time we got in, there was a song playing in either English or Spanish or both with that specific phrase, "que sera, sera." I'm not sure what that means for me quite yet but I'm sure I'll find out soon.
2023 was the most important year of my life to date. I tried new things, visited new countries, met new people and learned infinitely many lessons. I know that this year will be equally as important because I'll be a missionary for all 365 days of it! It gets lonely here sometimes... please email me the biggest lesson you learned in 2023 or your favorite memory! Love you all, remember this coming year that God shapes the back to bear the burden placed upon it.
dont be a stranger
Hermana Beck
